Chapter XII.

Further objections to the Godhead of the Son are met by
the same answer—to wit, that they may equally be urged against
the Father also. The Father, then, being in no way confined by
time, place, or anything else created, no such limitation is to be
imposed upon the Son, Whose marvellous generation is not only of the
Father, but of the Virgin also, and therefore, since in His generation
of the Father no distinction of sex, or the like, was involved, neither
was it in His generation of the Virgin.

74. The next
objection is this: “If the Son has not those properties
which all sons have, He is no Son.” May Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit pardon me, for I would propound the question in all
devoutness. Surely the Father is, and abides for ever:
created things, too, are as God hath ordained them. Is there any
one, then, amongst these creatures which is not subject to the
limitations of place, time, or the fact of having been created, or to
some originating cause or creator.18121812 St. Ambrose
here uses causa in the sense of causa
efficiens—ἀρχὴ
τῆς
κινήσεως.
Surely, none. What, then? Is there any one of them whereof
the Father stands in need? So to say were blasphemy. Cease,
then, to apply to the Godhead what is proper only to created
existences, or, if you insist upon forcing the comparison, bethink you
whither your wickedness leads. God forbid that we should even
behold the end thereof.

21475. We
maintain the answer given by piety. God is Almighty, and
therefore God the Father needs none of those things, for in Him there
is no changing, nor any place for such help as we need, we whose
weakness is supported by means of things of this kind. But He Who
is Almighty, plainly He is uncreate, and not confined to any place, and
surpasses time. Before God was not anything—nay, even to
speak about anything being before God is a grave sin. If, then,
you grant that in the nature of God the Father there is nought that
implies a being sustained, because He is God, it follows that nothing
of this sort can be supposed to exist in the Son of God, nothing that
connotes a beginning, or growth, forasmuch as He is “very God of
very God.”18131813 Cf. Nicene
Creed.

76. Seeing, then, that we find not the
customary order prevailing, be content, Arian, to believe in a
miraculous generation of the Son. Be content, I say, and if you
believe me not, at least have respect unto the voice of God saying,
“To whom have ye esteemed Me to be like?”18141814Isa. xlvi. 5. and again: “God is not like
a man that He should repent.”18151815Num. xxiii. 19. If,
indeed, God works mysteriously, seeing that He doth not work any work,
or fashion anything, or bring it to completion, by labor of hands, or
in any course of days, “for He spake, and they were made; He gave
the word and they were created,”18161816Ps.
cxlviii. 5. Cf. xxxiii. 6, 9. why should we not believe that He Whom
we acknowledge as a Creator, mysteriously working, discerning it in His
works, also begat His Son in a mysterious manner? Surely it is
fitting that He should be regarded as having begotten the Son in a
special and mysterious way. Let Him Who hath the grace of majesty
unrivalled likewise have the glory of mysterious generation.

77. Not only Christ’s generation of the
Father, but His birth also of the Virgin, demands our wonder. You
say that the former is like unto the manner wherein we men are
conceived. I will show—nay more, I will compel you yourself
to confess, that the latter also hath no likeness to the manner of our
birth. Tell me how it was that He was born of Mary, with what law
did His conception in a Virgin’s womb agree, how there could be
any birth without the seed of a man, how a maiden could become great
with child, how she became a mother before experience of such
intercourse as is between wives and husbands. There was no
[visible] cause,—and yet a son was begotten. How, then,
came about this birth, under a new law?

78. If, then, the common order of human
generation was not found in the case of the Virgin Mary, how can you
demand that God the Father should beget in such wise as you were
begotten in? Surely the common order is determined by difference
of sex; for this is implanted in the nature of our flesh, but where
flesh is not, how can you expect to find the infirmity of flesh?
No man calls in question one who is better than he is: to believe
is enjoined upon you, without permission to question. For it is
written, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.”18171817Gen. xv. 6. Language
is vain to set forth, not only the generation of the Son, but even the
works of God, for it is written: “All His works are
executed in faithfulness;”18181818Ps. xxxiii. 4. His
works, then, are done in faithfulness, but not His generation?
Ay, we call in question that which we see not, we who are bidden to
believe rather than enquire of that we see.